Pages

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

How NOT To Organise a Workshop

So early January I
get a call on my cell. “Can you attend a workshop?”

I was confused. How
could I answer that question? I’d never heard that there was a workshop in my
future requiring my attendance. It was early, I wasn’t quite awake, maybe I
forgot about it.

“I can’t say,” I
tell the person who said they were from the Ministry of Youth, Sport and
Culture (MYSC). “I need more information.”

“We’ll send you a
letter.” I gave her my email address and I wait. No letter arrives.

A couple of weeks
pass, and again an early morning call. I’ve come to realise the only people who call
me before 7:45 am are people from MYSC. I suspect they shut all of the phones
off after reasonable hours like 10 am so they have no option but to phone
people pre-caffeine and often pre-vertical.

“Do you need
accommodation?” the person asks.

“For what?” I ask,
only partly cognitive.

“For the
workshop,” she says.

“I don’t know
anything about a workshop. When is it?”

“From the 27-29th
of January,” she says. It was the 16thof January that day of the
call.

“No, we’ll post
you the letter. We need a record.” What?
Did we go back to 1992 while I slept? Email is apparently untraceable in the MYSC
world.

“But I need to
know what this is about. I don’t know anything, I don’t know if I need
accommodation. You could email the
letter in the meanwhile.”

“I’ll ask my
boss,” she says and hangs up. I never receive an email.

Instead on the 21st of January a
letter arrives in the post, it was postmarked on the 15th of
January, but still people have lives- snail mail is what it advertises, very
snail-y.

Things must now be
organised to travel to Gaborone and stay there for three days. Between the 21st
(the day the letter arrived) and the 27th (the day the workshop
started) were only three working days. How does someone get invited to a three
day workshop with only a three day notice?

The letter says
that “The importance of this capacity
building exercise cannot be overemphasised and it is in your best interest to
ensure attendance of (sic) this very important workshop”.There is no venue or time for the workshop on
the letter! Must I wander around
Gaborone calling out, hoping someone will find me? The venue will be
communicated, the letter assures me. I
was not feeling very assured.

I am the first
person to complain about the fact that our writers need more training. I am
more than happy to attend a writing workshop to improve my skills. But at the
same time what can one expect from a workshop organised in such a slapdash
manner? A workshop organised by people with so little respect for the time of
the writers they are inviting?

The primary
purpose of the workshop was to train scriptwriters. “The workshop will give the writer the ideas and techniques necessary
to properly write and rewrite their script.” But no mention is made of who
the resource people will be to teach us how to do that. This is important. At
the very least let the potential participants know what they’re getting
themselves into when giving three days of their life away.

I know what this is;
I’ve seen it so many times before. Government employees nowadays, thanks to the
productivity movement which brought very little productivity, have a list of
objectives they agree to accomplish during the year. I suspect somewhere there
is a paper and on it is this objective: Hold
one scriptwriting workshop. That’s good; I’m happy. Let’s do it. But the
problem is, now the time has finished and the person responsible just needs to
get it done, however that done might manifest.

Yes, the workshop
will be held. Yes, likely people will attend, the ones who intuitively knew the
venue. Yes, the civil servant will be able to tick off the objective. And yes,
lots of money will be spent.But the
question is: what was really accomplished in the long term? Can such a poorly
organised event make a difference? I think it’s doubtful.

But then- I’ll
never know. I’m writing this on the 28th of January and I’m not at
the workshop. Why? Because the venue is still topic secret and I’m apparently
not on the list of people meant to know it.

1 comment:

Thank you for pointing out that resources are wasted when workshops are poorly thought out and mismanaged. The subject matter itself can be of crucial importance, but because it's just another activity to be checked off we get the wrong attendees, short notice, high allowances and unsuitable agendas. As a result, those who could have benefited are cheated out of real opportunities. http://womanforhimself.blogspot.fi/

Follow by Email

Subscribe To Thoughts From Botswana

Follow Thoughts from Botswana!! Click below

About Me

I'm Lauri Kubuitsile. I'm a full-time, award-winning writer living in Botswana. I have numerous published books for both kids and adults, across various genres, and my short stories have been published around the world.
I have won the Pan-African prize for children's writing, The Golden Baobab, twice. I won the Bessie Head Literature Award for short story, the 2007 AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest, and the Botswana's Department of Arts and Culture, 2007 Botswerere Award for Creative Writing. I was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize.

NEWS!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!!! NEWS!!! NEWS!!!

- Lauri's book, Signed, The Secret Keeper (the second instalment of her Amogelang Sethunya series) is now out, published by Diamond Educational Publishers!!

-In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories is now available in print!!! It's published by Hands-On Books. Get it HERE. It is published as an ebook by HopeRoad- London. All stories in the collection are set in Botswana. Buy it HERE.

My Writing Successes

I have numerous published books, including three books from my Kate Gomolemo Detective series; The Fatal Payout (Macmillan 2005) , Murder for Profit (Pentagon 2008) and Anything for Money (Vivlia 2010). My children's book Mmele and the Magic Bones (Pentagon 2008) was short-listed for the African Writers Prize (UK) and has since been chosen as a set book for all primary schools in Botswana.

My book The Fatal Payout is a set work for all junior secondary school students in Botswana. Two of my books The Second Worst Thing (Oxford University Press) and The Curse of the Gold Coins (Vivlia) are CAPS approved in South African schoold for grade 7.

My short stories have won numerous prizes including first prize in the 2007 BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest, and twice winning highly commended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Short Story Contest. I won the Golden Baobab Prize in both 2009 and 2010, first in the junior section and the following year the senior section. My stories can be found on four continents; online, in print literary and popular magazines, and in anthologies.

In 2005, I was among three writers short-listed for our national, biannual prize for creative writing the Orange/Botswerere Prize. In 2007, I took first position for the same prize. In 2011 I was short-listed for The Caine Prize.

Search This Blog

The Second Worst Thing

CONTACT ME:

SOME OF THE BOOKS BY LAURI KUBUITSILE

Below see some of the covers of Lauri's books.

Signed, Hopelessly in Love

YA book published by Tafelberg. Now available!! Click the book to BUY!

Curse of the Gold Coins

As if Leano doesn't have enough problems trying to solve the problem of school fees. Now she's caught up in solving a crime that took place a hundred years ago. She must vindicate her great, great grandmother and hopefully the curse of the gold coins will disappear. Now CAPS approved in South Africa for grade 7!